Inside the bag you are now shouldering are three distinct weights:
1. God's matching unforgiveness toward you.
2. The potential disease(s) to which your body is now prone.
3. The larger target that makes you easy aim for the enemy.Matthew 6:15 says:
In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.Multiple studies corroborate that nursing a grudge means holding onto anger, and prolonged anger spikes our heart rate, lowers our immune response, and floods the brain with neurotransmitters that slow down problem-solving, even while stirring up depression. Over and over, research shows that forgiveness lowers blood pressure and increases optimism. Dr. Frederic Luskin, Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, says:
When you don't forgive, you release all the chemicals of the stress response. Each time you react, adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine enter the body. When it's a chronic grudge, you could think about it 20 times a day, and those chemicals limit creativity; they limit problem-solving. Cortisol and norepinephrine cause your brain to enter what we call 'the no-thinking zone,' and over time, they lead you to feel helpless and like a victim. When you forgive, you wipe all that clean.Nelson Mandela made famous this idea:
Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.Since God doesn't feed us poison, that drink can only be what the enemy aims at you when you are holding the larger target of unforgiveness. Being a good investment of the enemy's time is always a losing proposition.
All of this is the weight of the bag you are choosing to carry.
Hope it's a pretty bag because it sure is killing you.
